Mclaren eyes 2021 Le Mans 24 Hours
WEC
Mclaren could enter the World
Endurance Championship with a hypercar concept prototype before the end of the inaugural 2020-21 season of the new formula. It’s a significant admission and one that offers an insight into the WEC’S efforts to get manufacturers onto the grid as early as possible.
The British sportscar manufacturer had previously said that it would be unlikely to join the new top class of the WEC during season one. It isn’t now saying that it will be ready to compete some time early in 2021. Rather, according to Mclaren Racing boss Zak Brown, that doing a race or two before the Le Mans 24 Hours series finale that summer is “in discussion”.
There can be no firm plan at Mclaren for the moment. It is still evaluating how to make a hypercar programme work for the company after the publication of the regulations early last month. A decision, said Brown, isn’t imminent, but will likely come some time in the first half of 2019.
Yet the WEC and its promoter, the Automobile Club de l’ouest, need decisions from the manufacturers, and they need them quickly. That probably explains why Mclaren is looking at an early entry.
The WEC and the ACO are known to be pushing hard to get likely participants to join the party in time for the first Le Mans run to the new rules. They need to build a momentum that can only be provided by manufacturers putting their hands up and saying ‘yes we are coming’. They have big aspirations for the hypercar concept and want multiple manufacturers on the grid by June 2021. Four or five by the end of the first season seems to be the target.
Mclaren has been vocal in its support of the hypercar concept, perhaps the most enthusiastic along with Toyota of any of the manufacturers around the table as the regulations were formulated. That hasn’t changed with the sign-off of the rules by the FIA World Motor Sport Council in December. “We are closer to a decision now that the rules are final,” said Brown. “We are pleased with the way they have ended up, so the ball is now in our court.”
Those are the kind of words the WEC and the ACO want to hear, but not the commitments they need. The WEC has suggested that there is one on the way from a major manufacturer, but
“THEY NEED CAR MAKERS TO PUT HANDS UP AND SAY ‘WE’RE COMING’”
it’s not going to be Mclaren given the timeline Brown mentioned.
Toyota, as an incumbent marque competing in the WEC, may be the favourite to sign up first. It traditionally makes its annual motorsport announcement in late January or early February. But it isn’t certain that it will make a firm pledge to the hypercar concept in the coming weeks.
Toyota Motorsport Gmbh technical director Pascal Vasselon has pointed out that company policy is to “announce its participation year by year”. That suggests confirmation of the continuation of the LMP1 programme through the 2019-20 season is imminent, but not a firm commitment to the new rules. It would seem implausible, however, that Toyota’s annual motorsport announcement can pass without mention of the hypercar concept.
If we accept that Toyota will be a participant from the beginning, then who else is likely to be on the grid sometime in 2020-21? Of the six manufacturers known to be around the rulemaking table, it is not going to be BMW or Ford.
BMW Motorsport boss Jens Marquardt has suggested that the German manufacturer is unlikely to be “an early adopter”. Ford, meanwhile, never made any secret of its desire to see the hypercar concept adopted by the IMSA Sportscar Championship in North America. But there appears to be no appetite for that among the existing manufacturers competing in IMSA’S top Daytona Prototype international class, and the series organisers have stressed that they will be led by their stakeholders.
“A global set of rules was a big part of what we were aiming and hoping for,” said Mark Rushbrook, global head of
Ford Performance Motorsports. “Our programme with the Ford GT works well because we can share the investment and race it in two arenas [GTE Pro in the WEC and GT Le Mans in IMSA].” Rushbrook insists that no decisions have been made about Ford’s future motorsport plans, but it can be taken as read that it won’t be joining the hypercar class.
That leaves Aston Martin and Ferrari of the six manufacturers known to be involved in the rules deliberations. Aston’s position is that it is still “interested in principle” and continues to “evaluate its options”, while Ferrari is “looking deeply into the rules to understand if there’s room for a project”.
But there is another manufacturer out there with a real interest, according to sources. It’s a European marque and a major one at that. But whether this mystery manufacturer is prepared to stand up and be counted to give the hypercar concept the momentum it needs remains unclear.